The invention relates to an electrical connector, more particularly to an electrical connector for a mobile phone for insertion of an electronic card with chips.
The digital mobile phone system has almost replaced the analog mobile phone system due to their safety in keeping confidentially information and their superior quality for digitizing transmission signals in transmitting voices or graphics. In order to identify each user in the digital mobile phone system, mobile phones are connected with at least one SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card. The SIM electronic card includes a chip that stores personal identification number (PIN) data. The chip is formed with a plurality of electrical contacts on a side surface of the electronic card, and a circuit board of the mobile phone must have an electrical connector to connect with the electronic card so that after the electronic card is inserted into the mobile phone, the chip of the electronic card can contact electrically the circuit board of the mobile phone to transmit data.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional electrical connector 3 is shown to be connected with an electronic card 4. The connector 3 has an upper contact surface 31 formed with six terminal passages 33, and six conductive terminals 32 received respectively in the terminal passages 33. The conductive terminals 32 have contact portions 321 that project resiliently out of the contact surface 31 of the connector 3 to contact electrically and respectively six electrical contacts 41 of the electronic card 4, and engaging portions that are welded to a circuit board 5 of a mobile phone. During assembly, the electronic card 4 is initially inserted into a receiving unit (not shown). Then, through a pivoting manner, the side surface of the electronic card 4 having the six electrical contacts 41 is pressed against the contact surface 31 of the electrical connector 3 so that the electrical contacts 41 are in direct contact with the contact portions 321 of the conductive terminals 32 so as to establish an electrical connection. However, due to such a directly pressed connection, a relatively small point-to-point contact area can be produced between each contact 41 and the corresponding contact portion 321 of the conductive terminals 32 so that, when the electrical contacts 41 or the contact portions 321 of the conductive terminals 32 are stained with dust or other contaminants, poor electrical contact results. This leads to unstable electrical connection which can cause the mobile phone unable to use due to its inability to accurately read the data stored in the chip of the electronic card 4.
Referring to FIG. 2, in order to prevent the above-mentioned drawback, another conventional electrical connector 3 has been proposed. The electrical connector 3 has two lateral sides provided with guide grooves (not shown) for guiding the electronic card 4 toward the contact surface 31 of the electrical connector 3 so as to be in contact with the contact portions 321 of the conductive terminals 32. Due to horizontal movement of the electronic card 4, the electrical contacts 41 of the electronic card 4 and the contact portions 321 of the conductive terminals 32 are in frictional contact with each other until the electronic card 4 is positioned so that better electrical connection between the electrical contacts 41 and the contact portions 321 of the conductive terminals 32 can be provided and the poor electrical contact problem is avoided. Although the electrical connector 3 has achieved its intended purpose, the frictional contact between the electrical contacts 41 of the electronic card 4 and the contact portions 321 of the conductive terminals 32 occurs along a relatively long distance so that the electrical contacts 41 and the contact portions 321 are susceptible to wearing, especially when the electronic card 4 is frequently taken out for replacement.
Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector that provides more reliable electrical contact with an electronic card.
According to this invention, an electrical connector comprises an insulated housing, a plurality of conductive terminals, a cover body, a retaining unit, and, optionally, at least one limiting unit. Through the electrical connector of this invention, an electronic card having a plurality of electrical contacts can be electrically connected to a circuit board.
The insulated housing has a contact surface for contact with the electronic card, a connecting surface for connection with the circuit board, and opposite first and second lateral surfaces. The insulated housing further includes a plurality of terminal passages disposed between the contact surface and the connecting surface, and defines a first direction and a second direction that forms an angle with the first direction.
Each of the conductive terminals is received respectively inside the passages, and has a contact portion and an engaging portion. The contact portion projects out of the contact surface of the insulated housing, while the engaging portion projects out of the connecting surface of the insulated housing and connects electrically the circuit board.
The cover body is mounted movably and pivotally on the insulated housing, and cooperates with the contact surface of the insulated housing to define a receiving space for insertion of the electronic card therein.
The retaining unit includes a first element disposed on the insulated housing, and a second element disposed correspondingly on the cover body. The first element and the second element engage movably so that the cover body can pivot relative to the insulated housing between a first position, which is along the second direction, and a second position, which is along the first direction, and can move to a third position along the first direction.
The limiting unit includes a third element disposed on the insulated housing and a fourth element disposed on the cover body. When the cover body is on the first, second and third positions, it is positioned through mutual interference of the third and fourth elements, and depresses the contacts of the electronic card against the contact portions of the conductive terminals to produce an electrical connection subsequent to a frictioning action.